Vengeance Is Mine

( 5 )

Overview

A gut-wrenching, violent psychological crime drama from start to finish, this award-winning film by noted Japanese director Shohei Imamura is based on a true story. Iwao Enokizu Ken Ogata is a murderous sociopath who kills two money lenders in a gory opening scene. Then flashbacks are interspersed with Enokizu's flight across Japan as his miserable childhood and the development of his malevolent, anti-social behavior are portrayed. Vicious and sexually aggressive, Enokizu's rage simmers during an earlier stay in ...
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Overview

A gut-wrenching, violent psychological crime drama from start to finish, this award-winning film by noted Japanese director Shohei Imamura is based on a true story. Iwao Enokizu Ken Ogata is a murderous sociopath who kills two money lenders in a gory opening scene. Then flashbacks are interspersed with Enokizu's flight across Japan as his miserable childhood and the development of his malevolent, anti-social behavior are portrayed. Vicious and sexually aggressive, Enokizu's rage simmers during an earlier stay in prison as he imagines his wife is bedding down his father. Once on the run from the police, his aberrant sexual life and violent nature are further revealed in a series of gripping events.
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Special Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer; Excerpt from a video interview with director Shohei Imamura, produced by the Directors Guild of Japan; Theatrical trailer and teaser; New and improved English subtitle track; A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Michael Atkinson, a 1994 interview with Imamura by filmmaker Toichi Nakata, and writings by Imamura on Vengeance Is Mine and his approach to filmmaking
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Editorial Reviews

All Movie Guide - Jonathan Crow
After spending much of the 1970s making a number of well-regarded documentaries, master filmmaker Shohei Imamura returned to the realm of fiction with Vengeance Is Mine, a horrific character study of a bland-looking serial killer that brims with jarring violence and almost feral sexuality. Based on a true story and told in flashbacks, the film uses an innovative plot structure that winds back and forth between the present, during a police interrogation, and the past, including a 78-day spree of theft, whore-mongering, and murder. Though the film is littered with striking, nearly hallucinogenic images, Imamura shoots the unfolding events in a documentary style, with his trademark unobtrusive, distanced camera work. As a result, the grisly double murder near the beginning of the film is disconcertingly brutal and Vengeance's numerous sex scenes seem all the more racy. Though Imamura never spells out the protagonist's motives, the viewer is presented with an unnervingly intimate portrait of sociopath Iwao Enokizu (Ken Ogata), who is utterly unbound by any rules, morals, and laws (including laws of gravity, in the film's surreal final twist). Enokizu kills and cheats just about everyone except the person he hates the most, his father Shizuo (Rentaro Mikuni), who willingly submits not only to conformist demands of Japanese society but also to the dogma of the Catholic church. Having made a career exploring the messy underside of human nature, Imamura brilliantly renders this complex, hateful father-and-son relationship with the subtlety and detail that only a master could. This film ultimately made Ken Ogata a star in Japan and garnered prestigious Kinema Jumpo best actor prizes for Rentaro Mikuni and Mayumi Ogawa. Savage, bawdy, and darkly funny, Vengeance Is Mine is a striking journey in the mind of a killer that will linger on in the viewer's consciousness long after the credits have rolled.
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Product Details

  • Release Date: 5/15/2007
  • UPC: 715515023528
  • Original Release: 1979

    • Rating:

  • Source: Criterion
  • Region Code: 1
  • Presentation: Wide Screen / Subtitled / Colorized
  • Time: 2:20:00
  • Format: DVD

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits
Ken Ogata Iwao Enokizu
Rentaro Mikuni Shizuo Enokizu
Chocho Miyako Kayo Enokizu
Mitsuko Baisho Kazuko Enokizu
Mayumi Ogawa Haru Asano
Nijiko Kiyokawa Hisano Asano
Technical Credits
Shohei Imamura Director
Imamura Shohei Director
Satani Akino Production Designer
Shinsaku Himeda Cinematographer
Fujikura Hiroshi Executive Producer
Shinichiro Ikebe Score Composer
Shunsaku Ikehata Screenwriter
Inoue Kazuo Producer
Uraoka Keiichi Editor
Bab Masaru Screenwriter
Ikebe Shinichiro Score Composer
Himeda Shinsaku Cinematographer
Keiichi Uraoka Editor
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Scene Index

Disc #1 -- Vengeance Is Mine
1. Five Innocent Lives [4:21]
2. Victims No. 1 and No. 2 [15:14]
3. The Stiletto [3:54]
4. Suicide Note [3:11]
5. A Rebellious Youth [6:48]
6. New Bride [5:35]
7. Father-in-Law [9:30]
8. Paroled [10:55]
9. On the Run [10:21]
10. Wanted [9:00]
11. Mr. Aihara, Bail Lawyer [5:15]
12. Victim No. 3 [5:41]
13. Desperate Desires [4:30]
14. Tokyo With Haru [8:33]
15. "Whereabouts Still Unknown" [5:11]
16. Like Minds [6:45]
17. Victim No. 4 [7:55]
18. Victim No. 5 [6:05]
19. Father and Son [5:06]
20. Five Years Later [6:33]
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Menu

Disc #1 -- Vengeance Is Mine
   Play the Movie
   Chapters
   Imamura
      Play
   Color Bars
   Trailer
   Teaser
   Subtitles
      Subtitles: Off
      Subtitles: On
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Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4
( 5 )
Rating Distribution

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4 Star

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